Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-07-21
A POETS BOREs.

Some of the stories of bores, blum
dercrs, and intruders, who became
terribly frequent in Longfellow's later
years, are very droll. In several minds
Longfellow seems to have been con-
founded with an earlier and still great
er poet. A stranger called to see
Washington's headquarters, and asked
Longfellow if Shakespeare did not live
somewhere about there. 81 told him
knew no such person in the neigh
borhood." A similar thing occurred
at the Longsellow house in Portland,
where man asked "if Mr.. Shaks-
peare or some such name. was not born
there" An Irish mason, to whom
Longfellow babe good morning in the
street, straightway joined him with
the remark: II am glad to speak to a
poet. l have mesclf brother in the
port who is drunkard and a poet. +"
This was matched by an Italian wo-
man; she brought Longfellow little
Christmas tree made by her son, who
being asked if he played any instru-
ment, she answered: "Oh, yes; he
goes around with hand-organ and u
little monkey" One of Longfellow's
treasures was Coleridges inkstand.
He showed it to rustic visitor, say
ing: Perhaps The Ancient Mariner
was written from this" The stranger
looked blank for moment and then
asked: "And The Old 0aken Buck
ct, who done that?" Another visitor
remarked, on being shown n lovely
little painting of Europa by Albani:
"A acknowledgement, / presumed"
ais this the house where Longfellow
was bornPn asked a lady of the poet,
as he stood before his own door. mo,
he was not born here" did he die
here?" mot yet" "Are you Long
fellow?" Il am" Il thought you
died two years ago"
This morning counted the letters
to be answered on my table. They
are fifty-two Thus is my life riddled
to pieces" Most of the letters, of
course, We're from strangers, asking
favOrs. A lady at the west wrote for
one hundred autographs to be distrib-
uted to guests at a party. Fourteen
callers in the afternoon" is one of the
pathetic lines in the journal. This
them English" "a gentleman in
Maine wants me to read and criti-
else an epic poem which he has writ
ten on the creation, the six days
work, which he says is done up in
about six hundred lines" "A stranger
in the west asks me TO write for him
two poems 'on friendship, or a sub
ject like that, for the album of Young
lady who is a very particular friend
He asks me also to send the bill with
the articles. "A letter from Mr..
-, of Washington, a fierce and 'unre-
constructed rebel, and an entire stran-
ger, asking me to defray the expenses
of publishing his Analytical ESSAYS
on the Great Poets, which some of his
friends tell him are the most eloquent
and beautiful compositions in the En-
glish language. A teacher in
western college writes: please inform
me whether or not your feelings were
in sympathy with your immortal
thought when you wrote The Bridge
An invitation to a Burns dinner in
New York states that lit will be in
fact, as it were, not merely meeting
of mental and moral giants, but, met
speaking, a council of lit
erary giants. only think of it!' ex-
claimed the poet, what a dinner
party"
A note gives statement of the in
come earned by Longfellow from liter
airy labor. He kept record of il up
to 1852, and the largest sum received
in any year up to that date was ~, 800.
This was principally for the Poets
and Poetry of Europe original COM
position brought him much less, al
though in 1852 some of his most nota.
BILE things were on the market. in.
"Evangeline' and The Gold.
en- Legend. In fact, he had reached
fame long before lie began to realize
even moderate fortune. The lack of
an international copyright is supposed
to have cost him about $4,000. TO an
English lady who complained of Amer
lean pirates, he wrote: at may COM
tort you to know that l have had
twenty-five publishers in England and
Scotland, and only four of them ever
took the slightest notice of my ex-
stence, even so far as to send me a
copy of the books. "-Nea0 York Trib-
1ne's Literary ReUiew.